After graduating with honors, he entered the University of Texas at Austin in 1922[2] to study pre-law and major in government, political science, and economics.

That same year, he moved to New York City and landed a job in the men's chorus of the Broadway show The New Moon (1928).

He appeared as cowboy Cord Elam in the Broadway production Green Grow the Lilacs (1931),[2] the basis for the musical Oklahoma!

An article in the trade publication Billboard noted 14 years later that with that song, he "reached the style of rhythmic tune that would assure his musical stature".

[2] He moved to Nashville in 1965 and began working for radio station WSM and the Grand Ole Opry, earning a lifetime membership in the latter in 1970.

Despite high name recognition, he lost the nomination to United States Representative Bill Brock, who then defeated the incumbent Senator Albert Gore, Sr. in the general election.

They raised their two sons in Los Angeles and then he and Dorothy moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1965, as Tex wasn't acting and was solely focused on singing & recording.

He was a member of the charter group of inductees into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage, in 1998.

[12] Ritter can still be heard as the voice of Big Al, an audio-animatronic bear, at Disney theme park attraction Country Bear Jamboree at Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, and formerly at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and Disneyland in Anaheim, California.